The field of the present disclosure relates generally to flight management, more particularly, to systems, devices and methods of operation for flight management and applications thereof.
The cost of fuel is typically a large share of the operating expense in commercial aviation. As a consequence, operating efficiency and fuel savings are driving research for improvements in aircraft design and aircraft operations. The focus is primarily on those technologies that save fuel: aircraft and engine design, control design, and flight path planning and execution (called flight guidance).
Flight Management Systems (FMS) onboard aircraft typically determine climb, cruise, and descent speeds and constant cruise altitudes in an effort to reduce or minimize Direct Operating Cost given takeoff weight and range and assuming constant thrust for climb and idle thrust for descent. These simplifying assumptions have been applied to implement practical systems, but the simplifications yield suboptimal performance and compromised fuel savings.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods that improve the optimization problem for flight without simplifying assumptions to achieve guidance closer to optimum.